


Domestic

by helsinkibaby



Series: Right Beside Me Around Every Turn [2]
Category: The Flying Doctors
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Het Relationship, Fluff, Het, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-11
Updated: 2017-10-11
Packaged: 2019-01-16 05:13:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12336165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: Tom arrives at Chris's house for dinner where she has something important to tell him.





	Domestic

**Author's Note:**

> for gen prompt bingo - prompt "food, cooking and mealtimes"

"Hi, Tom." 

Zoe smiles at Tom as she opens the front door of Chris's house and Tom smiles back at the teenager as she steps back to let him in. Over the last couple of weeks since she's been staying with Chris, he's been here most nights for dinner and he's getting used to having her there. At first, she'd been a little quiet around him but she's starting to come out of her shell a little. He's grateful for that, for Chris's sake if nothing else - he knows how worried she's been about her. "Hey, Zoe." He sniffs the air as he follows her into the kitchen. "Something smells good." 

"I hope you're hungry," she throws back over her shoulder. "Chris has cooked enough for an army." 

He can see that for himself, the array of pots and pans bubbling away on the cooker giving the game away, even without Chris's wry smile as she turns to greet him. "Tom is always hungry," she says, a teasing glint in her eyes. "He's a bloke." 

Tom chuckles at the memory of Gibbo and his trademark sayings even as he reaches for Chris and presses his lips to hers in a brief kiss that would surely have had their friend muttering something along the lines of, "Don't mind me..." Of course, if Gibbo had been with them, Tom would have made the kiss a damn sight more theatrically passionate, just to make the teasing worthwhile, but Zoe's fifteen and Chris is taking her role of guardian and role model quite seriously so he keeps it brief. 

"A bloke who skipped lunch and hasn't eaten since breakfast," he counters but if he thinks that will get him sympathy, he's wrong. Chris just raises an eyebrow as she looks up at him. 

"Oh please, like Mrs McNair didn't fill you full of lammingtons," she scoffs and Tom looks down, instantly guilty because he knows he's been caught out. 

Chris looks supremely satisfied at his reaction, but it's Zoe who speaks, raising her hands and walking backwards towards the door. "If there's going to be a domestic, I'll be in my room til dinner's ready," she quips, disappearing out the door and down the hall and Tom waits until he hears the spare room door close before he turns back to Chris and kisses her properly the way he wouldn't in front of the kid. When he pulls back, he's the one who's satisfied because she's a little breathless, her cheeks flushed in a way that can't entirely be explained by the heat of the kitchen. 

"So, to what do I owe this feast?" He's teasing but it seems he's accidentally hit pay dirt if the way that she bites her lip and turns back to the cooker is any indication. 

"Are you implying something about my cooking habits?" But he can tell her heart's not in the joke and he tilts his head, steps up beside her and squeezes her shoulder. 

"Something you want to tell me?" 

The sigh that Chris gives is as good as a yes. "I got a phone call today," she says and he mentally steels himself. No good conversation has ever started with those words. "About Zoe." 

He looks over his shoulder as if he expects to see her standing there, but the doorway is empty. Turning back to Chris, he sees her looking troubled. "Her father?" 

Chris nods. "He wants to see her - but she doesn't want to see him, not yet. As far as she's concerned, Phil was the only real father she's ever known... I think she feels like it'd be disrespectful to him somehow." 

It's a reasonable enough conclusion, especially coming from the brain of a grief stricken fifteen year old. It does, however, raise another question. "So what's going to happen with her?" The moment he asks the question, the penny drops and he doesn't need Chris to look down to confirm it. "You want her to stay here." 

This time, Chris's sigh seems to come from somewhere around her toes. "She's so young, Tom... not much younger than I was when I lost my mum. And it's such a tough age anyway..." Her eyes are dark, troubled, far away and Tom's hands land on her shoulders, squeeze gently. "And I know it's not fair, dropping all this on you..." 

"Hey." He stops her with one word, leans in and kisses the top of her head. "Considering my track record of dropping life changing decisions on you, I'm not exactly in a position to complain." Her lips curl in the tiniest of smiles. "And if this is what you want... what you both want... then I'll support you, all the way." 

He's still holding her shoulders so he can't miss the way the tension there evaporates. She leans in, lets her forehead rest against his chest and he slides his arms around her shoulders, holds her tightly. "You don't have to say that." It's a half hearted attempt at letting him off the hook and it makes him shake his head. "I know fostering a teenager's not exactly what you signed up for..." 

He doesn't bother pointing out that, officially, he won't be doing any such thing. They're not married, not living together, no matter how many nights she spends at his place and he spends here. Her name will be on the paperwork alone and whatever he does will be strictly off the books. And yes, there are still probably some men who would walk away from that. 

But Tom walked away from Chris once before and he's not a man who makes the same mistake twice. 

"You're what I signed up for," he tells her now, tucking his index finger under her chin, lifting her head up so that he can look down into her eyes. "And whatever that entails... I'm here. And I'm not going anywhere. I promise." 

Her eyes are slightly shiny when she nods and he smiles as he kisses her one more time to seal the vow. "Now," he says when he pulls away, "what do I need to do to help get dinner on the table quickly? I really am starving."

Her giggle, the grin on her face and the light in her eyes feed a different sort of hunger and the meal, the three of them gathered around the table swapping stories, is just as filling.


End file.
